Towards the end of 2016, Bruichladdich released a “Troika of Tens” – three exciting ten year old releases in limited quantities. One for the unpeated Bruichladdich, one for the heavily peated Port Charlotte, and one for the super heavily peated Octomore.

The last round had Jim McEwan’s signature on them; this one is adorned with the autograph of Mr Adam Hannett. I love Jim’s Laddies but Adam’s have consistently exceeded all expectations.

At £150, it’s definitely not an every day dram but I’d just paid off my student loan so that seemed a good enough cause for celebration…

Nose: This takes me straight to the Atlantic! Very mineral-rich and coastal: salt-crusted seashells, damp driftwood, and dark green seaweed. It smells like rain (the proper word for this is “petrichor”, according to Jake) and there’s a great chalky/waxy quality in there, too. I love Octomore, it always paints a picture – this is a walk on a beach on a typical Summer’s day in Scotland. With time, some fruit appears in the form of orange and lemon peel.

Body: Viscous and mouth-coating but not cloying. That slow-drip distillation combined with the cask strength really works wonders.

Palate: Ok, a lot happens here. Briefly sweet and tart like a crisp green apple. The thick mouthfeel cocoons the impending peat smoke briefly and then *whoosh* the smoke is released! It goes straight to your sinuses like a good blob of wasabi. The savoury/spicy food continues with salt and pepper beef in chilli oil – very drying and tingly. As the tingling subsides, lime chocolate creams, peppermint, liquorice, and a hint of soft fruit (think honeydew melons/kiwis)

Gosh, they grow up so fast, don’t they? I love Octomore at five years old, all kicking and feisty. This hasn’t lost any of its kick with the additional five years but it’s gained a wonderful structure and nuance that gets better with every sip.

If you’ve ever been on Islay in May, you’ll know all about the reputation and buzz surrounding the Feis Ile bottlings from each of the eight distilleries on the island.

This bottling here represents something special – this is Jim McEwan’s liquid celebration of his fifty years in the whisky industry. Jim handed over the Bruichladdich baton to Adam Hannett in 2015 (and he’s doing a cracking job!) so bottlings like these won’t come by any more.

And given that it’s Christmas, I decided it was time to appreciate Jim’s legendary whisky talents. This is somewhat frustratingly released without an age statement but I’m confident it’s got some interesting older casks from the depths of the Laddie warehouses rolling around inside it.

Unusually, for a Bruichladdich special bottling, there’s nothing outrageous going on here at all.

However, what is going on is a really good solid, honest and well rounded whisky. It has all the hallmarks and core character of the distillery and it’s an easy sipping and classy flavour with enough complexity to keep it interesting.

This took a while to grow on me but I’m finding the complexity more appealing. Loads of funky sherry notes, the kind that you’ll love or hate. Pleasingly coastal and warming with great mouthfeel at that higher strength ABV.

The trouble for me with this dram is the lack of integration. The Bruichladdich distillery character is recognisable (malty, coastal, limey) but the wine/sherry influence feels very separate – like the two flavour profiles don’t get on with each other.

Overall: A flawed-yet-entertaining expression. Worth trying as a curiosity.

You can find this on auction sites for well under £100. Pretty tin and a good edition to a Laddie collection.

The Laddie Ten was one of the first truly exceptional single malts I ever tried, way back in Edinburgh in 2012. A whisky tasting was thrown in as a fun round-off to a technical conference and one of the Bruichladdich reps talked us through three expressions from the pre-Remy core lineup.

With the 10-year-old being pulled back to a distillery-only release recently it’s great to see another Laddie making its way onto the core lineup. With global demand still incredibly high for Scotch, an eight-year-old malt is a more sustainable age to meet the demand without resorting to multi-vintage bottlings.

Bruichladdich’s attitude to NAS bottlings is exemplary, though. They’ve always been open about the age of the whisky in the bottle (even if it’s not on the bottle, they make it known in the online literature) and their solidarity with Compass Box regarding the SWA ruling on showing “too much information” is heartwarming to see.

Palate: Luscious. That signature slow-distilled Laddie spirit, thick and buttery on the tongue. The flavour’s led by more fresh barley, sweet toffee, vanilla, and a touch of caramel biscuit then big waves of warming chai tea spices roll in – ginger, clove, black pepper, cinnamon. As it breathes in the glass, wafts of raspberry and peach come through

Finish: Warming and spicy with buttery oak and a salty, foamy edge.

Ahhh – fruity, malty, salty and so buttery on the tongue. Good stuff, Mr Hannett. I shall be keeping an eye out for this next time I’m at the airport!

Now Bruichladdich have their core range pinned down, it seems their main avenue of creative weirdness has been channelled into their Micro Provenance series, a set of single cask whiskies produced with unique formulae.

The labels spell out every detail of their production and the series endeavours to do things that haven’t been widely done before in the industry.

The defining trait of this bottling is a full ten years in a Spanish red wine cask. It’s not unusual for a whisky to be finished (or *ACE’d, in Bruichladdich vernacular) in a wine cask after years in a Bourbon barrel, but full term maturation is a lot less common.

Finish: Long, tingly and salty with a chewy mouth-coating peat residue, and a little cigarette ash. A touch of soap foam at the very end.

Mmmm, very more-ish! Another lovely wine-matured Port Charlotte with all those earthy, salty, sweet tobacco-rich notes.

These were £55 but snapped up within about 36 hours of release – sorry, but it’s all gone! 😦 Keep an eye on Whisky Broker’s website, Twitter and Facebook for details of releases. The good ones do tend to go fast.